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(cz) Scientists say it is highly unlikely same-sex couples would be able to use lab-created egg and sperm as a way to create their own biological child.
And despite advances, it could be 20 years before the science can routinely create human pregnancies, a global team of researchers and ethicists has said.
There are high hopes so-called artificial gametes could be used by those who find themselves infertile.
But the ethical debate is far ahead of the science, the Hinxton Group warns.
The consortium of scientists, academics and lawyers from 14 countries say it is nonetheless vital that the public and policy makers engage with a field which has the power to spark such controversy.
Artificial gametes are sperm and eggs created from stem cells. There are a variety of potential sources, including early embryos left-over from IVF to cells taken from the skin or bone marrow of a would-be parent.
In the UK, legislation currently allows artificial gametes in research, but bans it for creating a human pregnancy.
However, amendments which would lift this ban - if and when the science was ready - have been tabled to a major fertility bill which is about to go before parliament. more…

From: »BBC News«

(wz) A glimmer of hope has been offered to women desperate for help conceiving a child, as North Yorkshire health bosses have pledged to reconsider swingeing IVF funding cuts.
The Press has learned North Yorkshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) has decided to review its near-total suspension of IVF treatment for couples.
At the end of 2006, the debt-ridden PCT implemented urgent money-saving measures to balance its books. These included suspending IVF treatment - except in cases where the woman was aged 39 years and six months or older and egg collection could be achieved before she turned 40.
Prior to the cuts, women could join a waiting list of about 18-months for NHS treatment, before receiving one cycle of IVF. Many PCTs offer two, or even three, cycles of free treatment.
Since then the only alternative has been for couples to spend £3,500 per cycle on private treatment.
But in a letter to Selby MP John Grogan, PCT chief executive Dr Janet Soo-Chung has pledged to reconsider the funding cuts.
Dr Soo-Chung said: “I am able to confirm that the PCT is planning to make good the shortfall in those clinical areas which have been affected by the financial recovery plan, for example IVF services, and the PCT recognises that we need to move this position forward in 2000/09.
The plan is to address restrictions around the commissioning of IVF services within the financial year 2008/09. more…

From: »The Press«

(wz) A generational and class divide over the suitability of single women and lesbians as IVF mothers has been exposed by the Times/Populus poll.
Public opinion as a whole is opposed to the proposal to change the requirement that fertility clinics consider a child’s need for a father before treating patients to a “need for supportive parenting”.
Extensive support for the move among young people, however, suggests that attitudes towards IVF for lesbians and single women are changing.
The over-55s are strongly against the plans, with 50 per cent saying the law should not be changed and 19 per in favour. Among young people, however, the findings are reversed: 44 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds back the reform and 26 per cent oppose it.
The poll also found significant differences in opinion between social groups: though all classes came out against the measure, opposition was strongest among manual workers.
Conservative voters are also much more likely to reject the reform, by a net 28 points, while Liberal Democrats support it by a 14-point margin. Labour voters are split, with 32 per cent in favour and 36 per cent against. more…

From: »The Times«

(sz) Mothers’ health may be put at risk in the quest for high pregnancy rates at British IVF clinics, warn experts
The UK has one of the worst fertility treatment safety records in Europe, according to new figures published by the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology.
The chances of developing serious complications are up to four times higher in the UK than in other countries carrying out similar numbers of fertility treatments. Experts warn that women’s lives are being jeopardised in order to improve the numbers of successful pregnancies.
Britain has the highest levels of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), the most serious and potentially fatal side-effect of IVF treatment, the figures show. At least two women with OHSS have died in the past three years, and there are fears of more cases going unrecorded.
Complications from IVF treatment from the use of drugs to stimulate the production of eggs can range from severe bloating and vomiting, to kidney failure, and even death in rare cases. Fertility experts say they fear many serious cases are not being recorded, because women go straight to casualty or end up in intensive care, the cause of their symptoms going unnoticed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
Germany carried out in 2003 almost three times as many IVF cycles – implantations of fertilised embryos – as the UK, researchers found, but the UK had nearly three times more cases of OHSS. In 2004, France carried out nearly twice as many IVF cycles as Britain, but its OHSS rate was a quarter of that in UK clinics. more…

From: »The Independent«

(wz) Iran has unexpectedly liberal ideas about contraception and assisted reproduction techniques, the result of pragmatic decisions, and consequent laws, arrived at by Shia interpretations of religious tenets.
Every morning Salma runs her hand across her empty belly. It has been the same fruitless swipe for three years now and Salma’s heartache has filled the space inside with misery. She is 29, has a degree in civil engineering, a job and a husband who cares about her happiness. Firoz and Salma have known each other since they were children. Salma believes that they were pre-destined to be together so it seems cruel that they have been unable to have a baby. Salma struggles to find a way to live with the disappointment she believes she has brought upon herself, her husband and their families.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), infertility affects approximately 8-12% of couples of reproductive age (15-49 years) worldwide. A 2000 study suggests that in Tehran infertility is about 12%, in line with WHO calculations. Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after 12 months of unprotected intercourse. It is also the inability to carry a baby to term or have a family – and the feeling of exclusion from the human experience that can bring. Although male and female factors contribute equally to infertility, the term has historically and unfairly been used to describe the reproductive status of women, since they become pregnant and give birth. more…

From: »Le Monde diplomatique«

(wz) The cost of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the United States is anywhere from 10 to 15 thousand dollars — for just one cycle. The price tag including donor eggs can jump up to around 30 thousand dollars. In the Czech Republic, the cost of IVF is around four thousand dollars. The average success rate for IVF in the U.S. is about 25 percent. That number can be higher or lower depending on the clinic you go to.
GOING OVERSEAS: Craig and Marcela Fite founded IVF Vacation with the hopes of bringing affordable alternative IVF options to Americans by taking them to Marcela’s native country — the Czech Republic. The cost of an IVF vacation is about seven thousand dollars or 85 hundred with an egg donor. This price includes airfare, hotel accommodations for 21 days, medication, procedures and lab fees. The clinic the Fites use is The Clinic of Reproductive Medicine and Gynecology in Zlin. The clinic’s success rate is about 45.8 percent over all for a single IVF cycle. more…

From: »WPTV« (press release)

(cz) Embryo research has pitted scientists against bishops, caused a cabinet split and divided the country. Religion, politics, medicine and ethics all collide in a debate that boils down to the question above
Is a bunch of cells just that: a bunch of cells, as scientists would have it, or is it, as the Catholic Church insists, a human being with a soul?
It is the dispute that lies at the heart of the controversy over the Embryo Bill and it is as fundamental a difference of opinion as it is possible to imagine.
Gordon Brown performed a political climbdown yesterday and promised Labour MPs a free vote on the most emotive measures in the Bill, in effect throwing open the debate to the entire country. It is a piece of legislation that challenges our deepest notion of what it is to be human and what it is right to sanction in the interests of scientific progress.
MPs, in deciding how to cast their votes, will be taking soundings in their constituencies at the same time as consulting their consciences. In doing so, they are certain to be harangued with views from both sides in the acrimonious debate. The mammoth Bill is designed to update the 1990 regulatory framework for fertility treatment and embryo research in line with scientific advances and changes in public attitudes during the past 18 years. more…

From: »The Independent / Science«

(wz) Website matches sperm, egg donors with offspring
The listing reads like a personal ad: “Brown straight hair. Dark brown eyes. Light brown complexion.” But the writer isn’t looking for a date — he’s searching for his half-siblings and their common sperm donor.
Since 2000, when the Donor Sibling Registry was established, 18,604 people have posted their personal information. Some are children born through in vitro fertilization — others are parents or donors. More than 4,700 matches have been facilitated.
Wendy Kramer of Colorado created the registry with her son Ryan, who was curious about his genetic origins, yet knew little about his sperm donor.
When people go to the site, they often start out with mixed feelings about searching for a half-sibling or donor.
“They go into it thinking, ‘It would be great to find out I have a brother,’ ” she said. “Then they discover, ‘Oh my gosh, I have 22.’ ”
The registry is full of donors. In the early days, men — many of them medical students — often donated their sperm. more…

From: »Calgary Herald«

(wz) An Australian couple who used IVF to conceive a daughter to avoid passing on an incurable disease which only affects males are suing their doctors after giving birth to a boy, a report said Sunday.
The couple opted to use in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) to get pregnant so the woman could be implanted with only female embryos to avoid having a boy afflicted by the genetic and life-threatening illness haemophilia.
But in June 2005 they were delivered a son, Jess, who was soon afterwards found to have a severe form of haemophilia, a disease in which the blood does not clot properly and puts sufferers at risk of bleeding to death. more…

From: »AFP«

(cz) Beachcroft, Field Fisher Waterhouse (FFW), Herbert Smith and Morgan Cole have won places on the first ever panel for the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority (HFEA), the independent regulator that licences and monitors IVF, artificial insemination and human embryo research.
Panel members will advise on public law, corporate governance, judicial review, employment, contracts and procurement, medical law and training. They have been appointed for a three-year period.
The HFEA also has two in-house lawyers, senior legal adviser David Gomez and lawyer Catherine Drennan.
The FFW team advising the authority is led by public law and regulatory partner Sarah Ellson. Ellson said: “We are delighted to have been selected for the HFEA’s legal panel at a time when there are so many new developments in the field of fertility treatment and embryo research. more…

From: »The Lawyer«